Re:Wind Energy Is One of the Cheapest, and It's Getting Cheaper
by gordon_freeman on Monday September 04, 2017 @03:56PM
(#15170493)
Not sure if it's relevant question here but here I go: I was driving from LA towards Joshua Tree National Park and I saw so many wind turbines which were not operating even though there was plenty of wind blowing and the adjacent wind turbines were running. Is there any reason they were not operating? Can't be maintenance problem as I saw so many not running.
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Re:Wind Energy Is One of the Cheapest, and It's Getting Cheaper
by SpikedCola on Monday September 04, 2017 @05:09PM
(#15170876)
I believe this is because wind turbines are brought online and taken offline according to demand. Nukes/gas stations can't have capacity adjusted very quickly, and take hours to get up to full production. Wind can be started/stopped quickly as demand rises and falls throughout the day
"Demand response may also be used to increase demand during periods of high supply and/or low demand. Some types of generating plant must be run at close to full capacity (such as nuclear), while other types may produce at negligible marginal cost (such as wind and solar)."[0]
Re:Wind Energy Is One of the Cheapest, and It's Getting Cheaper
by danieka on Monday September 04, 2017 @03:59PM
(#15170508)
If the wind force is too much for the turbine/blades to handle I think that the blades are locked in place. Don't know if that's what you saw though.
Re:Wind Energy Is One of the Cheapest, and It's Getting Cheaper
by rsynnott on Tuesday September 05, 2017 @08:53AM
(#15174619)
If your base load (power that can't easily or efficiently be switched off; typically coal, nuclear and hydro) plus your renewable production exceed demand, then the best solution is normally to turn off some of the renewable.
Re:Wind Energy Is One of the Cheapest, and It's Getting Cheaper
by z2 on Monday September 04, 2017 @04:47PM
(#15170766)
It could be curtailment due to overcapacity or lack of transmission infrastructure to get the electricity to consumers [1]. I'm not quite sure why a more expensive source wouldn't be shut down instead, but maybe the unpredictability of wind power makes them the first to fall when demand is low?
1: https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/why-arent-those...
Re:Wind Energy Is One of the Cheapest, and It's Getting Cheaper
by Caveman_Coder on Monday September 04, 2017 @05:55PM
(#15171079)
The key thing is reliability and most Balancing Authorities will have procedures dictating which generation comes offline.